BUILDER BLUES

The recent rate run up saw the homebuilder sentiment index sink to 34 M-o-M, the biggest decline in 11 months, and the lowest sentiment level in seven months. Worse, the last time the index was in expansion territory (50+) was in 4/24. All regions deteriorated, six-months ahead sales expectations cratered to 42 from 49 last month, and buyer traffic fell to a super-depressed 22 from 25. Conditions are utterly moribund.